I wanna get into sly speedrunning and i am clueless on where to start, any tips is appreaciated.
BCPS3 is optimal, but it is highly highly recommended not to play on it, especially when starting out.
General rule of thumb: run with what you have, there is no bad/detrimental version of the game. If you have a PS2, run on that. If you have a PS4, run on that. If you don't have anything, run on emulator, see if you like the game and speedrun before making any huge investments. Worst thing you can do is spend a bunch of money on hardware for a speedrun you don't enjoy.
That being said, for the Original version, if you have plenty of choices, the general hierarchy is:
- PS5
- BCPS3 (requires you to maintain the console)
- PS2 (Slim PS2)
- PS4
PS4 is technically slightly faster than PS2, but the game feels much better to play on a PS2. PS5 only loses a handful of seconds to BCPS3 and is significantly more sustainable (and depending where you live, a second-hand PS5 is more worth than a second-hand BCPS3). PS5 also has the benefit of always having the NTSC version with it, regardless of where in the world you buy the game from.
At this point, BCPS3 is only "worth" if you're gunning for any of the world records. Nowadays, second place/top 3 is more than obtainable on a PS5 given enough practice and dedication.
Might be worth noting that the Remaster (PS3/Vita) version is a very different speedrun to the Original version. There, your choices are pretty much just (fat) PS3, on the NTSC version, which you can easily get via modded console. Functionally every PS3 release is the same, NTSC is just faster due to "health & safety skip" which saves time in game resets. Same rule of thumb applies, run with what you got, see if you enjoy the game before investing time or money into the optimal setup.
